Imagine an African government with a desire to encourage connection, transparency and collaboration among their donors. Imagine a group of foundations who have chosen not to operate in silos, but instead to share their work, find synergies and combine their resources for wide and sustainable impact.

Such an office exists within the Government of Liberia. It is a pilot project based within the Office of the President and financially supported by private dollars, that embraces reporting and the tracking of outcomes. A tracking system available for the world to see (via the web), provides an avenue of accountability by the country’s citizens and the world at large.

During the recent AGAG retreat my colleagues questioned, fairly, the issues of sustainability, and whether or not being housed within the government will dampen the integrity of the project. I could be proven wrong, but because there are many players involved — not just those from private foundations– it reduces the likelihood. The office has connected with nonprofits working on the ground, individual donors, and other leaders within civil society. Instead of remaining anonymous, the funders of the project have created a grassroots movement to get others donors involved; to let the world know about the project with the hope it might be a replicable model.

For those of you questioning the accountability of the Liberia leadership, be reminded we are all accountable. You can’t simply question whether or not someone is accountable; you must also be willing to step up if you find that they are not. That responsibility now belongs to you as well.

Regarding sustainability, honestly, only time will tell. But the leadership within the government and those foundations involved are committed to nurturing the project over the remaining two years. Not just through funding, but also by helping develop relationships, systems, and when appropriate, stepping away (often difficult for us) to let the leadership lead.

And for those of you who continually question the authenticity of African leaders – choosing to lump all into the same proverbial barrel - chances are you have plenty of corruption to deal with on your own soil. Let this leadership be free to choose a path of integrity and innovation for their people.

Yvonne Moore is the Executive Director of the Daphne Foundation, a family foundation focused on the causes and consequence of poverty in New York City and in Western Africa. Her foundation is part of a three-year pilot project, The Philanthropy Secretariat, based within the Government of Liberia. The focus of the Secretariat is to connect foundations investing in the country’s re-development to help increase impact, sustainability and improve their connections to and between other foundations, government and civil society.

There is such a wealth of information on Africa produced in Africa. While the Internet has helped these organizations to elevate their profile so that more people are aware of them, social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube provide platforms where the general public can get to know more about Africa.

The Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) is a research and capacity-building organization that works to encourage more dialogue between researchers and policy makers in eastern and southern Africa. The main office is located on the campus of Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.

Institutions and individuals can join and gain access to the online resources that are quite interesting and varied and provide a platform for social science research on a range of topics. They also have a Facebook page where their list of “Favorite Pages” is another source of interesting information on a range or resources such as Wikigender.

YouTube has also provided a platform for the general public to access information about Africa by Africans. A recent example is the video of Chimamanda Adichie’s “The danger of a single story,” featured as one the Tedtalks. This is a powerful reminder to all of us of the danger of looking at Africa through a single lens. There is also a powerful YouTube piece on Rural Women Solar Engineers of Africa that showcases the rural women who brought solar electricity to rural villages the different countries in Africa. It also raises questions about effective and cost effective approaches to education, workforce development and the role of women. It also offers some concrete examples of effective approaches that have demonstrated to work.

For funders interested in supporting organizations and projects in Africa, there are lots of resources to help you to understand better the context of the community and to provide some food for thought. Don’t forget these social media sights as part of your research. While the “openness” of these platforms enables it to be a forum for possible misinformation, it also provides an opportunity to see and learn about things that are working but absence from the major newspaper and media outlets.

If there are some examples you would like to share, please send them to me at blog@africagrantmakers.org

My recent move back to my small mostly agricultural home town in Northern Virginia has given me a different perspective on many things. From my office I watch how the seasonal changes affect the woodlands behind my house.

As activists and leaders meet in Copenhagen to try to find common ground on an equitable approach to mitigating the impact of climate change, these talks have much more meaning for me. Like most folks, I guess I don’t really pay attention until things take on a more immediate face. Each time I have to cart my trash to the landfill, I am reminded how waste is poluting the earth. The idea of not buying bottled water because the plastic will be around for much too long makes a lot more sense. What has become much more vivid as well is how all of this affects the lives of so many communities in African countries, which is largely agricultural.

A recent report released by the United Nations Population Fund helps me to better understand the complexity of the situation. The report, “State of World Population 2009:Facing a changing world: women, population and climate” notes that the number of people living on Africa’s vast continent has doubled over the past 25 years. It is now over a billion of the 6.8 billion on the planet.

“While the developed countries have contributed the most to human-induced climate change up to now, people in poor countries—most dramatically in Africa—already are much more likely to die as a result of the climate change that occurred up to 2000″

Maybe big, global issues loom too large for most of us to think we can make a difference. But as this report points out, efforts have to come from all sides. For example, guarding the rights of women and working for reproductive health has an impact on climate change. Supporting civic education in African communities is important in building community awareness and participation. Supporting agricultural practices that respect traditional knowledge is also part of the effort.

There are so many great efforts underway in African communities to combat climate change. I’d like to highlight some of them so if you have links to website or videos about African efforts to combat climate change please drop me a line so I can highlight some of them.

Foundations are a source of funding to support the work of a range of organizations making a difference in their communities. But often, they also help to strengthen a sector by connecting organizations to each other.

The recent AGAG segment of “Conversations With/Dialogues On” highlighted an example of this. The Global Fund for Children (GFC) organized a knowledge exchange workshop to bring together organizations working in english and french-speaking countries in West Africa focusing on children. If you missed it, I encourage you to listen to audio excerpts and read a summary on the AGAG website.

Networking is important and central to building and sharing knowledge. Unfortunately, it is often hard to trace specific results back to the connection of ideas and people made during these types of events. Yet, sharing our stories and what we have learned is at the center of our lives.

The McKnight Foundation Collaboration Crop Research Program is another example of making important connections. This competitive grants program connects researchers from many different countries working to increase food security for resource-poor people in developing countries. The collaborative research projects are grouped in “communities of practice” and includes a range of stakeholders including scientists and farmers. There are communities of practice in west, southern, east and the horn of Africa. The program links experts from countries across the globe.

In 2008, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation make a five year grant to the McKnight Foundation for $26.7 million dollars to support the project. The CCRP website is wealth of information about the projects including progress reports and impact. The leadership team pairs the McKnight International Program Director, Jane Maland Cady with the CCRP Scientific Director, Rebecca Nelson, who is employed by and based at Cornell University.

Two good examples of making connections and building knowledge useful in building strong communities in Africa. If you know of some other interesting examples, I invite you to share them with me. Send them to nmutima [at] agag.org.

Communications can be a powerful tool in advancing human rights. Figuring out the best way to support African development initiatives means being willing to talk about sucesses and failures.

I encourage you to check out the report from Atlantic Philanthropies, What We’ve Learned: Lessons From A Communications Campaign for South Africa’s Rural Poor.” It presents some insights from communiction strategies used by a coalition of NGOs who came together to fight the illegal evication of farm workers.

The photographs in the report are incredible and are part of a photography book that helps to put a face on this issue. It is hard to believe that over a million farmers were evicted over the decade between 1994 to 2004. This reports reminds us that overcoming apartheid in South Africa only marked the beginning of the work to be done to reverse generations of injustice. It also reminds us how important it is share what we have learned about what works and what doesn’t.

The Atlantic Philantrophies was founded by Chuck Feeney, who became a billionaire as the co-founder of Duty Free Shops and secretly transferred all of his wealth to The Atlantic Philanthopies in 1984. In 2008 Atlantic made over $34 million in grants to support development efforts in South Africa.

Most funders working in Africa might not have head of Fazel Hasan Abed. But then again, those working in poverty alleviation might be very familiar with the former Shell Oil Executive’s organization, BRAC. Started by Abed in 1972 in Bangladesh, it has grown into one of the largest organizations working to reduce poverty. Based upon its impact in Bangladesh, it appears to have a model that works. The question is, will it work in West Africa? Several funders think it will.

BRAC is already working in Tanzania where it has run programs in a range of areas including microfinance, small enterprise, agriculture, health, and youth since 2006 and employs over 800 people. BRAC received $15 millions from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support this work. In Uganda it has created more then 1,000 jobs and works in similar areas. With an investment of $15 million, the Soros Economic Development Fund, Open Society Initiative for West Africa, Omidyar Network, and Humanity United are betting on BRAC to replicate its success in Bangladesh in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Both the Soros Economic Development Fund and the Open Society Institute for West Africa are part of the philanthropic activities of George Soros. Omiday Network and Humanity United are part of the philantropic interests of ebay founder Pierre Omidyar, and his wife Pam, who is the founder and board chair of Humanity United.

It is no doubt that BRAC and its founder has proven that it’s holistic from the ground up approach have yielded results. It established an “independent in house” research and evaluation division in 1975 that has conducted evaluation of its programs and made them available to the public..

Both Liberia and Sierra Leone are countries emerging from prolonged conflicts that have wrecked their physical infrastructures and strained the endurance of its citizens. And on top of that, like everywhere else, both countries are faced with the impact of the global economic downturn.

Funders supporting development projects in Africa might do well to keep an eye on BRAC’s experiences in these two countries in West Africa. It will be interesting to see if the success in Bangladesh will bring change in these West African countries and the cross fertilization of experiences will yield a more customized approach suited to the realities and context of Liberia and Sierra Leone.